Intimal lipid accumulation, hyperplasia, and scarring are stigmata of atherosclerotic vascular
disease, whose major complications—myocardial and cerebral ischemia and infarction—
continue to be major health problems in developed nations. 1 This insidiously progressive
disease typically spans decades, but can reach a clinical horizon in a matter of minutes due
to critical changes in a given atherosclerotic plaque that result in localized but lifethreatening
thrombosis. Epidemiological studies have established that hypercholesterolemia is an …